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Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

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Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#201

Post by kristopolous »

threeseed wrote: post #136
kristopolous wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said a similar thing yesterday: > Current valley hiring practices filter out the mischiefs needed to take things from sustaining to innovative. It's why tech is coasting and deteriorating. > Passionate weirdos like JWZ, Stallman, TBL, Carmack, Cutler, Torvalds, Woz, Pike, Wall, Jobs and Bellard are required Originally posted over here: ( https://twitter.com/emoRobot/status/1552076562027098112 ) And 15 hours ago, a…

All of the people who you listed are unquestionably talented. But they are unsuited to working in very large companies which requires collaboration, patience and tolerance of other views. And pretty sure they know it too. You can make the tired hiring practices are the problem argument but actually it's the nature of large companies themselves that self-select for these types of people.

That's a mischaracterization.

The passionate grumps don't lack collaboration, patience and tolerance. Instead they have more commitment to the product and company then to power relationships and hierarchies

They may also be impossible to work with but that's independent (alright, it's likely correlated).

Anyway, the hard-nosed ones are closer in spirit to scientists who get mischaracterized as uncooperative inflexible foot-draggers because their advocacies and endorsements aren't a functional of social relationships and ideally can't be changed by them.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#202

Post by fdgsdfogijq »

btheshoe wrote: post #174
fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #9

Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate: They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. Keith Rabois (top VC), mentioned that FB has always prioritized optimization over…

leetcode isn't that hard though.

exactly, its very doable for a certain type of brain/personality

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#203

Post by solarmist »

system16 wrote: post #14

It's fascinating how reactionary and directionless Instagram and Facebook have become. Instagram in particular has become Frankenstein's monster over the last few years, pathetically trying to reproduce functionality from other apps. The latest cloning of TikTok's feed is almost embarrassing. It's a testament to how deep the lack of a creative culture at Meta runs.

This was exactly my experience in a dev productivity team that had fulfilled its purpose well enough.

It’s not a lack of creativity, but a lack of mission/vision/true north.

Basically they’re flailing about trying to find something that sticks. If they can’t they’ll go the way of yahoo.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#204

Post by dagw »

WalterBright wrote: post #156
fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Commented this elsewhere: Theres a difference between creating beautiful creative code and creating an innovative product that people want to use. Its a different type of intelligence, and why you dont see Math professors starting ecommerce/product/clothing businesses. The classic dichotomy between steve jobs and wozniak. I have worked at a few big tech companies, I have regularly seen engineers drive huge innovation…

You don't see math professors doing startups because they have tenure and are financially risk-averse. They also simply like being professors. There may be another factor - universities are dominated by anti-capitalist sentiment. Doing a business startup means exiting that belief system.

Admittedly I'm over a decade out of university so things might have changed, but when I was getting my masters in mathematics several of the math professors had various 'side hustles' doing cool and advanced stuff at startups and in industry or finance.

universities are dominated by anti-capitalist sentiment

I know this is trendy to say and I'm sure there are individual universities where it is true, but I see little evidence for it at large. If nothing else every hedge fund and investment bank in the world basically only hire university graduates, and they can hardly be accused of being anti-capitalist. Every economics course I ever took was based, almost axiomatically, on the premise that capitalism is awesome.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#205

Post by shreyshnaccount »

fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #9

Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate: They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. Keith Rabois (top VC), mentioned that FB has always prioritized optimization over…

I see where you're coming from but I disagree. your posts assumes that people who are good at leetcode (or more accurately, get good at leetcode by spending time on it) are not creative. but I'd like to point out that creativity isn't an intrinsic ability, but largely a skill. you get more creative the more you practice. innovation is not just about thinking differently for the sake of it, but more about the cross-pollination of ideas from different domains. that's what mathematicians do a lot of the time- see what unsolved puzzle can be re-shaped to be like a solved puzzle, and that's what a good computer scientist should be able to do with tech. i belive, at the same time, that leetcode is pretty fucking useless as a measure of ability and a way of learning new algos because. my opinion on the matter is that big tech like Google and fb suck because each manager has to justify their bullshit job by doing some bullshit change. there's no coherent vision anymore and the company has fragmented into a thousand teams, each run like a bad startup with infinite funding just until the boss gets a promotion or smth. and then the team does some other bullshit changes. apple has always had a very coherent product vision, and so this doesn't happen. i belive my conjecture is simpler and more plausible than saying that people who work hard aren't creative.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#206

Post by dqpb »

fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #9

Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate: They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. Keith Rabois (top VC), mentioned that FB has always prioritized optimization over…

> their employees are bookish, not innovative people

This is false. However, there is probably a misalignment between what the employees want to innovate on, and what Instagram users want.

My guess is that deep down it’s hard for a talented adult to truly give a fuck about Instagram.

So they do what they have to to keep themselves feeling like their work is meaningful. And that diverges from what consumers of tween influencer / fake-moment-creators think they want.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#207

Post by instastuff »

[anonymous account]

No matter how many "users" Instagram has, TikTok is absolutely destroying Instagram in terms of minutes of user engagement. People are spending way, way more time on TikTok than Instagram and the trend is accelerating.

Meta is in full panic mode. They see the sand slipping through their fingers. They are trying to turn Instagram into TikTok because they think that is the only move. After all, it worked for them last time when they copied Stories and beat Snap.

But this time, not only is that strategy failing, but it is making their still enormous user base revolt.

Stories was a relatively useful extension to Instagram that didn't break the core app, so adding it worked. TikTok is a different thing and doesn't slot into Instagram as cleanly. Meta already tried making their TikTok clone a new "tab" in the app, but that didn't get the kind of results they needed. So now they are trying to make the whole app into TikTok because they don't know what else to do .

I'm not really sure where they go from here. Instagram isn't satisfied being Instagram - they need to lead the world in order to attract ad revenue. But they are losing ground quickly.

In the social media game, momentum is everything. TikTok has way more watch time so creators get more user engagement and can build their profiles much more quickly. Instagram is behind in engagement, so there is no incentive for creators to jump ship and get worse results. Instagram gets less fresh content which leads to less engagement and less ad sales. It's a vicious cycle that puts TikTok further ahead.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#208

Post by fdgsdfogijq »

anyfoo wrote: post #197
fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I posted this elsewhere, creativity with regards to creating and intuiting what will be a good product is completely different than creating a beautiful algorithm. Math professors arent known for their sense of style. And I agree, size hampers it, but here we have Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple all creating new products that people like. And who you hire as engineers permeates through the culture.

> here we have Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple all creating new products that people like And you think that those companies don't test proficiency of working with algorithms when hiring? What? Two of them (arguably all three) make operating systems . That's just one of many parts of what they do where proficiency in algorithms and data structures is a strong prerequisite.

Im not saying they dont test, but not anywhere near to the same degree. You absolutely need to be able to solve some of these problems, but FB takes it to another level. Its almost not even comparable in terms of the rigor.

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#209

Post by paul7986 »

fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #9

Theory on facebook failure/Google failure to innovate: They have the highest leetcode standards out of FAANG. As does Snap. They hire people that basically memorized computer science algorithms. And so their employees are bookish, not innovative people. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon do not have the same issues with creating new products. Keith Rabois (top VC), mentioned that FB has always prioritized optimization over…

Zuckerberg is not an innovator we all know where Facebook came from. He's a do-er and copier and he will lose the AR Glasses race as it requires someone innovative behind that ship.

He keeps throwing all this money at VR which has been around since the 90s. The general public doesnt want it.. want something strapped to their face/isolating themselves from real life... it is not the next iPhone!

Re: Instagram is shifting to videos – users aren't happy

#210

Post by joe_the_user »

mnd999 wrote: post #22

“I guarantee that every single person who liked and shared that post about bringing Instagram back to what it was, would spend way less time on Instagram if it reverted back to how it used to be” Sure, because they could get the information they want without having to wade through the mountains of crap you’re pumping out of the septic tank into your users faces. You’re optimising the wrong metric you fucking clown.

You’re optimising the wrong metric...

They're optimizing for the metric that suits their interests.

It occurs to me that Facebook and related companies may well become the equivalent of ransomware companies - controlling more and more of the world's information and making more and more abusive demands for access to it.

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